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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is nearly 100 years old and outdated attitudes aside it hasn't really aged a day. You may call The 39 Steps the Grandfather of the modern thriller and mean it in a semi-disparaging way, but in the sense that the Grandfather is the mould from which a million grandchildren are formed you'd be correct.
Sadly the thriller in popular fiction has largely ignored Darwin's theory of evolution and as such most modern day fare consists of misformed jelly that wasn't allowed time to set, a xerox of a xerox of a xerox of a xerox in which the firmness of the print has started to bleed in to the now extremely grey background.
I say most, there are a few mutants out there, the great shining hope for the genre, the missing link on the road to wiping out generic unit shifters from [a:John Grisham|721|John Grisham|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1330960311p2/721.jpg] and [a:James Patterson|3780|James Patterson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1284492096p2/3780.jpg] but if we're not careful these Neanderthals will wipe out the intelligent Homo Sapien thrillers and soon we'll all be reading young adult versions of the real thing.
In a week I was tired of seeing sights and within a month I had had enough of..... [culture] A 100 year old statement on moving to London, it is as true today as it was then and could be said of all the major cities in the world I would imagine.
Buchan does labour the point that the good honest down to earth Scotsman is a much better person than all the comfortable middle classes combined and that irritated a little. His use of the Scots dialect made me want to read [b:The Wee Free Men|833420|The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30)|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328341385s/833420.jpg|62580] again and perhaps my knowledge of that series of books helped me to actually decipher Buchan's dialogue.
It was an enjoyable enough read and a good history lesson but nothing more than that, I read its grandchildren in my teenage years and I evolved as a reader. It gets an extra star because of historical value.
Sadly the thriller in popular fiction has largely ignored Darwin's theory of evolution and as such most modern day fare consists of misformed jelly that wasn't allowed time to set, a xerox of a xerox of a xerox of a xerox in which the firmness of the print has started to bleed in to the now extremely grey background.
I say most, there are a few mutants out there, the great shining hope for the genre, the missing link on the road to wiping out generic unit shifters from [a:John Grisham|721|John Grisham|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1330960311p2/721.jpg] and [a:James Patterson|3780|James Patterson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1284492096p2/3780.jpg] but if we're not careful these Neanderthals will wipe out the intelligent Homo Sapien thrillers and soon we'll all be reading young adult versions of the real thing.
In a week I was tired of seeing sights and within a month I had had enough of..... [culture] A 100 year old statement on moving to London, it is as true today as it was then and could be said of all the major cities in the world I would imagine.
Buchan does labour the point that the good honest down to earth Scotsman is a much better person than all the comfortable middle classes combined and that irritated a little. His use of the Scots dialect made me want to read [b:The Wee Free Men|833420|The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30)|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328341385s/833420.jpg|62580] again and perhaps my knowledge of that series of books helped me to actually decipher Buchan's dialogue.
It was an enjoyable enough read and a good history lesson but nothing more than that, I read its grandchildren in my teenage years and I evolved as a reader. It gets an extra star because of historical value.
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hitchcock's film adaptation was merely suggested by this adventure spy novel. Good fun.
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am very grateful that my LibraryThing secret Santa picked this book for me. I did not know that there were new publications available of some very old crime fiction books. This one is short but a lot of action is packed into a few pages. The book was released in 1915 as a serial fiction offering. In it we are introduced to Richard Hannay, who is a Scottish ex-pat who has made his fortune in the South African diamond mines, and has found himself in London and at loose ends because he’s bored. In pops a stranger with an even stranger tale to tell and Richard is galvanized into action to complete the job that this stranger had started before he was killed in Hannay’s flat. He begins a dangerous and harrowing journey to get the information that he received into the right hands. The book is a combination of political intrigue, adventure tale, murder and an intimate portrait of the people in Britain at this time, which is just before WW1. Everything falls on Hannay to save his country and people from the danger that threatens, and he faces some implacable enemies and some rough terrain to complete his mission. A very enjoyable little book this was and I shall be checking out other vintage crime books as well.
So I picked up this book mostly because it looked like Alfred Hitchcock married Nancy Drew--two faves of mine, but also because its "classic" mystery, a genre I hadn't explored outside Agatha Christie novels. Overall, it was an intriguing tale, filled with lots of disguises, intense pursuits, and cryptic messages. A word of caution for you English majors out there: the characters are extremely underdeveloped and the plot moves at an almost inhuman pace (an entire adventure in less than 150 pages?!?), two things I found really annoying when reading this book. But keep in mind that the author meant for this book to resemble American "dime store" novels, which is probably why it feels so superficial. Ultimately, this is an entertaining book, and one you could easily read on a snowy afternoon when classes are canceled.
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
You may think you know the story if you have seen the Hitchcock movie or the more recent BBC version with David Tennant. Buchan's original tale holds its own and is worth reading.